68th Army Corps
In 2014, under the command of then-Major General Valery Asapov, the 68th Army Corps was recreated on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The headquarters is in city Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Corps was first formed in 1993 from the 51st Army and disbanded in 2010 was transformed in 2014.
The uniqueness of the 51st Army was that it was the only “island” army in the Soviet Army (and, perhaps, in the whole world). On the island of Sakhalin and the islands of the Kuril ridge concentrated combined-arms formations with a large number of heavy military equipment, separated over large distances. Sakhalin with its more than 900-kilometer length and small width (at the narrowest point of about 40 km) seems to be a warship put on a long-term anchorage, equipped to the limit with weapons. In addition to the ground units, a rather powerful 24th division of the 11th Air Defense Army and part of the Pacific Fleet was stationed here.
All 3 army divisions actually consisted of formations deployed over long distances, each of which was able to carry out combat missions in strictly designated territory. So, the 18th machine gun and artillery division in the event of hostilities, acting essentially autonomously, could confront the enemy and defend only a few islands of the southern Kuril ridge. For the 33rd Motorized Rifle Division, the zone of responsibility extended to the south of Sakhalin (south of the village of Dolinsk and Tomari). The rest of the island (about 80%) fell under the “guardianship” of the 79th Motorized Rifle Division. It should be noted that the land connection between the northern and southern parts of Sakhalin was based on one narrow-gauge railway (which for the most part had only 1 track).
The isolation of the army from the “mainland” affected both its equipment and the moral and psychological state of the personnel. The army was equipped with the residual principle - it was almost impossible to see modern military equipment here. And for the personnel, living conditions were, to put it mildly, uncomfortable. The only plus for the officers was that the areas of the army’s deployment fell under the category of replaceable ones, which gave a chance to change the old Japanese barracks or, at best, clumsy “Khrushchevs” to more decent places of service and accommodation.
After the collapse of the USSR, the army was minimized to the 68th Army Corps. The 68th Army Corps was formed on October 11, 1993, the first 51st Army in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, part of the Far Eastern Military District. It included the 33rd motorized rifle division in Khomutovo , the 18 machine gun artillery divisions at Goryachiye Klyuchi, and the 31st anti-aircraft missile brigade in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. In 1997, his commander, Lieutenant General Gennady Anoshin, died of heart failure during an airplane flight just before he was scheduled to retire from active duty. In 2002, the 31st brigade was disbanded. Sources differ on the date of disbandment of the corps. According to Alexei Gaidai, in the New Army of Russia , the corps was disbanded on 1 December 2014, but other news report cited the date of the disbandment corps in 2010. On June 1, 2009, as part of the reform of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the 33rd Division was reduced to the 39th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade.
In April 2014, the corps was rebuilt on the basis of units already deployed in Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands: the 18th machine gun artillery division and the 39th separate motorized rifle brigade under the command of Major General Valery Asapov . A separate six hundred and seventy-sixth engineering battalion was formed later this year. In July 2015, Major General Alexander Peryazev accepted the team after Asapov transferred to the Southern Military District . The corps has been in the full system of contract acquisition since August 2016. In February 2017, Major General Dmitry Glushenkov became commander of the corps, replacing Peryazev, who became commander of the 20th Guards Army .
The main responsibility for protecting the Kuril Islands lies with the 18th machine gun artillery division of the Eastern Military District. The division headquarters are located at Goryachiye Klyuchi on Iturup Island. It also has garrisons on the islands of Kunashir and Shikotan. The 18th artillery division was previously the only strength unit of the military unit remaining in the Armed Forces of Russia , as well as from the 201st military base in Tajikistan. The worn-out infrastructure of this unit needs major repairs. There are also Border Guard troops stationed on the islands.
According to RIA Novosti military analyst Ilya Kramnik, the artillery division of the eighteenth is unlikely to be able to protect the islands from attack. In the event of an attack by Japan, Russian troops in the Kuril Islands are expected to hold out only one to four days if they do not receive support. Russia planned to begin construction of two new military posts in 2013. By the end of 2011, island airfields were repaired. In addition, in 2011, it was reported that the K-300P Bastion-P system was deployed on the islands. The unit became part of the 68th Army Corps in 2014.
Russian Lieutenant General Valery Asapov, who commanded the 68th Army Corps in the Sakhalin Region from 2014 to 2015, was killed under a sudden mortar fire in Syria, it was reported 25 September 2017. "As a result of a sudden mortar bombardment of ISIS militants (banned in the Russian Federation), Lieutenant General Valery Asapov was mortally wounded by a mine explosion," the Ministry of Defense said in a statement to Interfax on Sunday. It is clarified that "the senior group of Russian military advisers, Lieutenant General Asapov, was at the command post of the Syrian troops, helping the Syrian commanders in managing the operation to liberate the city of Deir ez-Zor." The command presented the deceased Valery Asapov "posthumously to a high state award."
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
